The prior art discloses storage, transport and presentation systems for surgical auxiliary materials, such as screws, nails and pins, which are available to a surgeon during an operation together with implants.
The implants and the auxiliary materials for fixing the implants in and on the patient must be sterilized and should be capable of being stored in a sterile condition for as long as possible. In their storage position and in their containers, the auxiliary materials should also be capable of being washed without having to additionally remove them from the container for this purpose.
It is known from the patent literature, through DE-A1-41 22 045, that bone screws can be stored in sterilization containers. In this context, DE-A1-41 22 045 has proposed using a perforated plate on which a plurality of containers are positioned in a stable manner. Such a container has place for ten bone screws.
A product range of a company which operates under the company name KLS-Martin with head office in Florida, USA, is available on the specialist market. The product range includes trays having different compartments for holding surgical instruments and tools. A perforated plate which is also described in DE-A1-41 22 045 is present in one of the compartments. A large number of screws, in particular bone screws, are present directly in the perforated plate. The screws can all be held simultaneously. If such a tray slips during the day to day work in a hospital or becomes inverted, the screws can fall on to the floor.
The same supplier also offers a plastic system which likewise represents a sterilizable tray. The screw compartment consists of a multiplicity of elongated, oval insertion positions into which screw holders or carriers for screws can be inserted. Each screw holder or carrier is provided with a cover under which, in the filled state, a group of screws of the same type, as a rule of five screws of the same type, is present.
A surgeon or his surgical team is frequently under enormous physical stress during complicated operations. Each manipulation should be capable of being carried out precisely. Particularly with small auxiliary materials which are required for fixing the implants, surgeons have problems since their hands are frequently larger than, for example, the screws which are to be used on the patient and which are to fix the implants to the bones underneath.
As a rule, the surgeon would always like to be able to pick up with his tool only that screw which he actually needs at the particular moment. All the remaining auxiliary material should be capable of remaining secured until it is required. In the secured state, it should also be permitted to be exposed to slight vibration without losing its sterile property by, for example, falling onto the floor. This is because as soon as something falls on to the floor it is as a rule unsterile even in the secured state. Preferably, the carriers should therefore not be permitted to leave the tray unintentionally.
In preparation for an operation, appropriate carrier systems can be assembled. Particularly in the case of emergency operations, only a very short time is available for assembly. To permit fast assembly, carrier systems should be capable of being equipped easily in the correct quantities and, after equipping it should be capable of withstanding the rough day to day work in a hospital without the tray being able to fall to the floor. At the same time, the requirement that the auxiliary material be easily accessible or removable and optionally be capable of being resterilized during a preparation, which is apparently contrary to the above, must not be neglected.